Piranha Mobile Sim Card

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by Stu

I've used Groundwire with Pirahna and it works well with their clients.

Folks at Pirahna, a have two questions for you: (a) any plans for SMS forwarding?; or, (b) a client to allow you to text on an Android or iOS device over 3g?

Also, I see that you can set a different caller-id with your phone. How does one do that?

i set a different caller-id via contacting their customer service on their online chat.

[davidtheprof]

recently upgraded to Samsung Galaxy S2 from S (Vibrant), and the VOIP would not work (on Android ICS 4.04). Had to install Acrobits SIP on their recommendation, now it's fine.

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by davidtheprof

recently upgraded to Samsung Galaxy S2 from S (Vibrant), and the VOIP would not work (on Android ICS 4.04). Had to install Acrobits SIP on their recommendation, now it's fine.

I use the Acrobits SIP too, very satisfied with it.

piranha states in their forum that they'll launch a new voip application in the coming weeks.

[PSIM]

Originally Posted by fsotirop

I use the Acrobits SIP too, very satisfied with it.

piranha states in their forum that they'll launch a new voip application in the coming weeks.

No, we have stated that we hope to launch more apps in the next 8-12 weeks.

[kctopitz]

Originally Posted by fsotirop

i set a different caller-id via contacting their customer service on their online chat.

Just to clarify, this means you can have Piranha customer service setup your service so that when you call someone the number that shows up on caller ID (of the person receiving your call) when calling over GSM is different from the one they give you? I assume you have to prove you own the other number, but if this is the case, this is a great feature, and may have sold me on getting a Piranha SIM.

[snidely]

Shipped on Monday, arrived in California on Saturday. It took about 15-30 minutes for the SIM to first register.
Although our last trips the past couple years we've relied on having wifi at hotels and restaurants (Vietnam, Cambodia etc.) - we weren't sure we'd have universal wifi in China (never been there) and I have business needs that might not wait and wife has mother to deal with who is in a care home.
While I got it mainly to put in a dumb phone for phone calls, their data rates are quite reasonable at 47 cents per Meg. I'll use my Blackberry for email - unlimited at 67 cents/day.
My wife's ipad is locked, but I might take my Android Tablet.

[kctopitz]

I've been using a Piranha SIM for the past month in the US, and thus far I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone. On paper it's a great product. In reality, it seems that they have some serious bugs that need ironing out.

Some experiences:

- Within the first few days, I noticed I was not receiving text messages being sent to my Google Voice number (i.e. I saw them online at Google Voice, but they were not being forwarded). With further testing I discovered that it had nothing to do with Google Voice, and direct phone-to-phone text messages were not going through to my device. I contacted Piranha online and the problem was quickly resolved.

- A couple weeks ago on a road-trip to Chicago, my phone service stopped working completely. No reception at all. I was able to see T-Mobile's service (Piranha's US provider) when I did a manual service search, but was unable to connect. Despite restarting my phone and reinserting the SIM numerous times, nothing helped and service was unavailable for hours - even in areas I had used Piranha and T-Mobile before. I tried an actual T-Mobile SIM in my phone just to make sure it wasn't a T-Mobile outage. The problem was clearly on Piranha's end. I contacted Piranha online and the problem was quickly resolved (confirming my suspicion that it was a problem on their end). In my email I asked to speak with a supervisor, as not having service for such a long period is a serious fault. I received an email suggesting this was to do with T-Mobile's 3G bands and an incompatibility with my device - which it wasn't (I was using GSM and have used T-Mobile's GSM for years). Despite asking again, I've still received no explanation as to why I had no service for hours on end, nor any assurance that it won't ever happen again.

- Once your balance goes below 3 pounds (remember it's a UK service), you receive a low balance SMS after EVERY call or SMS sent that reduces your balance further. Highly annoying. I've just contacted them asking for this to be disabled or at least reduced so that only one such notification is sent out per day at maximum.

- On the plus side, they do allow you to change your outgoing caller ID info to another number. To do this simply contact customer service through their website. I changed my outgoing CID to my Google Voice number, and this plus the free incoming SMS (an unusual feature in the US market) make this ideal for using with Google Voice.

So, if they can just fix the first 3 problems I'll continue using them. As it is now, if you're considering a Piranha SIM, I'd hold off if you can to see how things pan out. I'll definitely report back here if things get better or worse.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by kctopitz

- Once your balance goes below 3 pounds (remember it's a UK service), you receive a low balance SMS after EVERY call or SMS sent that reduces your balance further......
............... plus the free incoming SMS (an unusual feature in the US market) make this ideal for using with Google Voice.

Incoming SMS is free but the ones they send you about low balance are not free??

[kctopitz]

No, sorry - I should have worded that better. What I meant was that any billable action (calls made and received, SMS sent -- but NOT SMS received since that's free) results in an low balance notification by SMS. So, send 3 SMS over the course of 5 minutes, receive 3 low balance notifications over 5 minutes. It's stupid.

[PSIM]

Originally Posted by kctopitz

I've been using a Piranha SIM for the past month in the US, and thus far I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone. On paper it's a great product. In reality, it seems that they have some serious bugs that need ironing out.

Some experiences:

- Within the first few days, I noticed I was not receiving text messages being sent to my Google Voice number (i.e. I saw them online at Google Voice, but they were not being forwarded). With further testing I discovered that it had nothing to do with Google Voice, and direct phone-to-phone text messages were not going through to my device. I contacted Piranha online and the problem was quickly resolved.

- A couple weeks ago on a road-trip to Chicago, my phone service stopped working completely. No reception at all. I was able to see T-Mobile's service (Piranha's US provider) when I did a manual service search, but was unable to connect. Despite restarting my phone and reinserting the SIM numerous times, nothing helped and service was unavailable for hours - even in areas I had used Piranha and T-Mobile before. I tried an actual T-Mobile SIM in my phone just to make sure it wasn't a T-Mobile outage. The problem was clearly on Piranha's end. I contacted Piranha online and the problem was quickly resolved (confirming my suspicion that it was a problem on their end). In my email I asked to speak with a supervisor, as not having service for such a long period is a serious fault. I received an email suggesting this was to do with T-Mobile's 3G bands and an incompatibility with my device - which it wasn't (I was using GSM and have used T-Mobile's GSM for years). Despite asking again, I've still received no explanation as to why I had no service for hours on end, nor any assurance that it won't ever happen again.

- Once your balance goes below 3 pounds (remember it's a UK service), you receive a low balance SMS after EVERY call or SMS sent that reduces your balance further. Highly annoying. I've just contacted them asking for this to be disabled or at least reduced so that only one such notification is sent out per day at maximum.

- On the plus side, they do allow you to change your outgoing caller ID info to another number. To do this simply contact customer service through their website. I changed my outgoing CID to my Google Voice number, and this plus the free incoming SMS (an unusual feature in the US market) make this ideal for using with Google Voice.

So, if they can just fix the first 3 problems I'll continue using them. As it is now, if you're considering a Piranha SIM, I'd hold off if you can to see how things pan out. I'll definitely report back here if things get better or worse.

Dear Sir, as you rightly stated we quickly resolved your Google Voice SMS issue, we did however explain to you that T-Mobile for 3G works on the 1700 MHZ band and that you may have had an issue if your handset did not support the 1700 MHZ service, (we do have a notice on the website stating that a 1700 MHZ handset is recommended when roaming in the US). if your handset does not support 1700 MHZ it will revert to default 2G, which has less coverage than 3G, you have since informed admin that your handset does not support 1700 MHZ, we also explained that T-Mobile were re-farming there 1900 MHZ network to get around this issue and that they are hopeful all works will be completed by the summer 2013. You were given a full explanation regarding the T-Mobile roll out and 1700 MHZ bands. The low balance SMS service (standard in most PAYG services) is there for all users, unfortunately at this time we do not run a bespoke service for individual users.

PSIM